The whole pageantry of Old
Covenant symbolism with its internal constraints, is past. A new liberty
is present simply because the substance for which the symbols were shadows,
being now present, it dismisses these as merely preparatory shadows. Unneeded
in this consummation, they are not rejected as wrong, but may be fulfilled
in their teaching office, by the presence of their focus, now Himself present
and presented to view: Jesus the Christ.

In the case of symbolism in
its civic, theocratic totality, it is no more a criterion, let alone KEYSTONE
OF THE FAITH, as Colossians 2 specifically advises. The legislated things
required in the law of the land, as governed by God, in the theocratic State,
are not as civic laws now applicable. There is no force to exact them, and
the political structure has changed. The lore of the law in such symbols
is definitely past. The conceptual basis is replaced however, not with some
novel alien feature; but rather with what it signified, as if $20 were suddenly
replaced with a note to that value, on your desk, while the symbols on the
screen disappeared. It is a good exchange; they intimately relate; but the
latter has more power, is more direct.

What is NOT past is this:
the realities provided as such, in divine-human relations, and in the essential
character of the inter-human relations as such. God is still the same, man
the same. Thus wrong treatment at the inter-personal level does not become
right now that Christ has come: human persons being now, as before, in the
same image of the same - indeed the ONLY - God, they remain subject to the
same principles and equities, the same righteousness and truth, though it
is expressed more directly.

Both Christ Himself (Matthew
5:17-20) and Paul (Romans 3:31) are quite explicit that the law is to be
established, not forsaken. Indeed, if it were to be forsaken, what requirement
would Christ have met, since He became accursed in order to fulfil the righteousness
of the law (Galatians 3:10-13, II Cor. 5:19-21, Hebrews 9:12-15, Romans
5:16-18). It is rather that both its theocratic office and its preparatory
symbolic ministry are apt to be superseded: the one because the international
body of Christians is no longer a civic community, but sprinkled throughout
many nations; the other, because the preparatory office of symbols has been
swallowed up in great and substantial ways, consummated in the One who as
sacrifice, offered Himself, the High Priest, in the Temple of His own flesh,
declaring the absolution to faith, in the spirit of forgiveness, and paying
the ransom in the spirit of love and service (Matthew 20:28, Luke 23:34).

Isaiah 22:22-25 expresses
it as does Zechariah 3:9, in this, that the symbolic apparatus, the whole
priestly set of ordinances is fulfilled, He bearing in one place and in
one event, the entire global and indeed universal burden of all sin that
is remitted to Him, He remitting its penalty in its midst, subduing it by
arising from the death it required and exacted. It is like a whole set of
garments hung on a nail, says Isaiah, and the nail is suddenly ... cut.
It all falls to the ground.

It is like a stone, says Zechariah,
and inscribed on it, is SIN; and this cuts off the sin's dreadful destiny
producing pardon, in one day. "I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day," and "I
will engrave its engraving", which is to say what Isaiah says, in effect, in Isaiah 53:10: " It pleased the Lord to bruise Him;
He has put Him to grief; when you will make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the
Lord shall prosper in His hand." It is at least in the same milieu of discourse, the jewel
of many facets being examined in the one bright light, and turned this way
and that...

As to Sunday: the divine-human
reality was explicit. God, the Creator had made man in a creative thrust
that encompassed the universe, in seven days. He rested. So man would follow
this pattern, being in the image of God. Based on an historical fact wrought
by God , it would be followed by an historical act, performed by man. God
is still God and man is still man, and man is still created and that is
precisely the way he was created, in all this, there being precisely no
change. This divinely demanded rest day, at the level of murder and theft
in its litany of requirements, this is to be done, with those other offences
left undone: it was based on history, things past. It bespoke creation,
format, the nature of man in itself, as God made it, according to His OWN
desire and order, in creation. In Colossians 2:16-17, we are told of the
relinquishing in the New Covenant of what signified things to come, in the
area of sabbaths, of which there were quite a number, with their various
requirements, specifications, purposes in the ritual actions of the law,
that vast symbolic teacher and expression of righteousness. Shadows, not
substance, were out.

2. The Pincers

On two grounds, therefore,
the enactment of the day of rest is not altered: it was in the domain of
a matter of fact, of history, of the divine requirements in terms of what
was past; and it was a specific constructional derivative from it. This
was how man was made, and this was how man would make it, being made, and
do so pleasingly to God. Secondly, this day of rest, the one in seven, did
not symbolise Christ to come, since in this aspect it was explicitly stated
to be grounded in creation, long finished: a physical, absolute creation
from nothing at all in the physical world - that world itself being the
OBJECT of the creation, that it might be. In six days we read, was the generation
of the heavens and the earth, and in this the Lord did it all. Their genealogy
was thus, and not otherwise, says Genesis 2:4. The account is clear, direct,
decisive and sharp; and the summary is equally so. THIS is the history of
the creation of the heavens and the earth. As to their creation, that account
is it. It was done by His word, and the consequence is what is, heaven and
earth and the special features as noted.

THAT is what the creation
was; THIS was what the rest was; and the arithmetical parallel was express
in that field.

As to the particular day,
however, on which this feat, this fact, this creation is to be honoured and
implemented at the maintenance level, the service requirements for man, in
terms of his conduct in ongoing history: this is subject to alteration, to
development and to consummation of its message, meat and meaning. In fact,
indeed, it became a matter of re-creation through redemption, life through
death, the Messiah's act. That is of course (Matthew 5:17-20) is not
repudiation, but fulfilment.

3. The Word

Development is not repudiation;
and the day being apportioned arithmetically, its development to cover more
of the coming works of God is still HIS affair, without any abrogation whatever.
The PRINCIPLE however of one day in seven - being founded on the divine
mind in its approach to the creature, the creation called man - was to parallel
the day of rest, days of work fraction of the Almighty's work, in the labours
of man; and this is to be maintained where consistency occurs.*1

And it does.

The word of God is fulfilled in the thrust
of its comparison, in the parallel, the fraction, now that its perfection
has come in a new work, for another day. It is not two days, or none: it
is ONE for the One who has completed His work for a new day. It is "the Lord's
day" (Revelation 1:10).

In fact, the rest day now
has the superior sanction of His personal redemption, which is founded for all who are
the Lord's: without this, man's creation would simply and justly land him
in hell. Thus Galatians 6:14, where all this is expressly and categorically covered: GOD FORBID
THAT I SHOULD GLORY EXCEPT IN THE CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST .. (cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms,
Appendix III, The Living God, pp. 313ff.).

4. The Rule

What rule however has this
realm of redemption, and has Christ the Redeemer, in the realm of rest,
the day of rest?

As explained elsewhere in
this article, it is as "Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2:28, of the "rest"):

since Jehovah, creator,
instituted it,

Jehovah, the same, as
Redeemer can develop its form at and meaning

as is just in view of man's
entire dependence on Him, and the price He has paid in this redemption.

Not only was this no small
office, but it was the only event which directly involved the Creator in
express anguish in the human format itself, in a penal setting. Nor is it
simply that He is Lord and paid for the pleasure of making some adjustments.
Known to God are His works from the beginning. Rather, having paid in history
for the sins of His people, He wills to represent this payment and this
rest which results, in a day which is forever and before all, the day of
His triumph, of the enactment which fulfils the glory, and rescues such
of His creation as are willing to drink of His water of life.

5. The Action

The scene has moved, the scenario
moves in accord; and it is all as arranged and provided, logical, spiritual,
succinct. As Paul puts it in I Corinthians 15:

"For since by man came
death, by man came resurrection from the dead. For as in Adam all die, even
so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ
the firstfruits;afterwards they who are Christ's at
His coming...The first man Adam a made a living soul; the last Adam was
a quickening spirit. However, that as not first which is spiritual, but
what is natural; and afterwards, what is spiritual. The first man is of
the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they
also that are heavenly."

Moving now into the heavenly,
we have a heavenly redeemer with a heavenly way and a heavenly day on which
He rose to break the earthy penalty of the earthy ways which provided no
rest, except in Him who was to come, and coming, was to act, and acting provided
rest by His performance on that day, the grand final of God's work for man,
fittingly to be honoured, and honoured fittingly by His power after passion,
appearing bodily in their midst. It was not by permission or protocol, but
by the overwhelming physical reality of spiritual power which raised Him
from the dead, that the last vast work was completed, and His "Peace" echoed
in their hearts while, perforce, they worshipped the Lord who had now completed
the essential ingredients of their salvation, and presented the same with
His face.

Christ indeed made it apparent
at the time of His enunciating this principle, that the Sabbath is made
for man, not man for the Sabbath, and that He Himself, "the Son of Man"
was Lord of it; that similarly, in terms of real action, it was a day of
mercy, in which those in unplanned need should be visited with pity. This
too was articulated into the rest day, without in the least abrogating it:
merely putting it into the hands of the God who being rich in mercy, looks
for people activated by mercy; who, being great in goodness, expects His
people to feel the pressure of goodness as it were, to exhale with their
breath and to flow from their hearts: even on Sunday. The blend, REAL REST
without UNREAL RIGOUR that demeans human life, was perfectly seen in His
own ways and life. LAW informed with LOVE was the personal progress of beauty,
even on the Sabbath.

Similarly, again, in His resurrection,
not merely did He grant the ONLY rest of spirit and of heart that by that
time had objective basis (for if HE were a fraud, if HE did not rise, then
hell itself yawned before His followers, as "reward", and "rest" as an aspect
of godly living would have no counterpart in repudiation in the dark passages
of just judgment)!

From Him as Head and Cornerstone,
rejected in derision and restored in power, as substance replacing shadow,
bloom erupting from bud, day replacing dawn, they now took their stage
and place in the arena of life. The rest of God walked, being His and within
Him, nestling in its resting-place (Isaiah 11:10): and was glorious. It
walked in Him into that upper room of prayer after the tragedy, in terms
of which was His agonised proclamation, that "It is finished!" Now however
it was "Peace be to you" ...the triumph announced from that grisly site and
gracious pinnacle of performance on Friday, now became the living andlivelyexhibition of rest. Now on Sunday, it was demonstrated. The
rest day walked into their midst and worship ensued.

6. Its Commemoration

To commemorate the realities
of their creation and covenant with God OUTSIDE this new, startling and substantial
feature, this over-riding reality, would be blasphemy, at best; denial at
worst. Again, this is precisely what the tenor of Galatians 6:14 is constantly
bringing to our minds and harts.

The Sabbath as a choice day
WITHIN the week therefore had to be re-drafted into the acceptable mode,
where creation and redemption, both of God, acknowledgment of the day they
were brought into existence and the way in which they were bought into acceptance,
would yield a fitting result. The new consummation would equally acknowledge
the way, indeed the day, when, having been "delivered up for their offences", He was now "raised for their justification " - Romans 4:25.

To short-circuit that, created
by God by His action, enacted by the Lord by His presence, performed into
their very hearts by His Peace evoking worship and the very principles of
worship as Thomas capitulated on that day: to do this as though the creation
was still their ground of being, remaining as a sufficient ground for rest,
it would be to short-change the Cross.

Hence the "Lord of the Sabbath" exercised His claimed capacity to
be Lord, not by word only, or enactment, as in His double appearance on
this day, but in His very life eruption from the baulked hands of death,
to declare justification a fact! So that they indeed, having been justified
by faith (Romans 5:1), they might even "rejoice in the atonement" (Romans 5:11).

On the very first day on which sun shone, aptly intermingling
its early rays with the removal of the boulder, and its light with the appearance
of the angels:

as He came at His
birth, itself the
arrival of the first-born of creation, pre-eminent as the Creator taking
His place among His creatures for their deliverance,

so now as the first-born
from the dead, He came back. Life which smiles at death, through grief its cost, was unveiled;
and HE was Himself its commemoration, who chose, impelled by love to set
at rest their hearts and truth to bring news of eternity, the One who DID
come back to "tell us", so instituting the worship on the day which enabled
it.

7. Its Depth in
the Heart of God

who sent His Son
not least

to Achieve Rest
for Man

Hebrews tells us in Ch.4 of
the rest which GOD Himself had, when He ceased HIS work of creation, pointing
out that Psalm 95 shows that there was still a rest available to the saints
of God, a rest which was vainly offered to the generation in the wilderness
(though not all did not disbelieve), who did not enter into their rest.
This rest, it declares, is still available, and rests in resting in the
Rest of God, who has accomplished our salvation (Ch.9) with ONE offering
ONCE made, securing eternal redemption and that, even from the transgressions
made against the very law of God. It is not merely on offer, but necessary,
being the gift to faith through the grace of God (Hebrews 6:18-19; 4:9-11,16).

This rest is integumental
to walking with God. HE rested. There IS a rest in God, is the message of
Hebrews at this point. Our salvation is not to be wrested by some works
of our own, but involves that the gospel be mixed rather with FAITH (Hebrews
4:2), the real and vital deficiency displayed by the lost generation in
the wilderness under Moses, whose children went into the land, they holding
back. The word and works of God are the basis of rest, He rests, and those
who know HIM are to rest in Him. There is the principle of rest applied to
salvation, and it is necessary to make sure, to labour, to enter into that
rest. Now the rest is not the entering, but the result of entering wholly
by faith. When the children of Israel were bruised by their brutal refusal
to enter into the promised land, through lack of faith, fear in place of
acceptance, divorce from the leading of God in the place of marriage to
it, then they decided to go it alone, and force a way on their own, if need
be without the Lord, and contrary to the word of God through His prophet.

THIS did not work. Moses told
them of their folly, but they persisted as stubbornly in GOING IN contrary
to the offer of faith which would infallibly ensure their entry into the
promised land in the very presence of the Lord, as they had done in NOT GOING
IN WHEN asked to do so. THEIR way was the criterion both in refusal and in
later insistence. ANY WAY they went, it was of their own making, whether
in negating the offer of God or affirming their own way to get where the
Lord would have led them, had they only followed HIM and not the desires
and inventions (Eccles.7:29) of their own hearts. For all this, see Numbers
13:30-14:45.

There remains a rest therefore
for the people of God, a rest of place through grace, of majesty accepted,
salvation granted by divine power alone, accession to His Lordship, confession
of His pardon through price paid in sacrifice, now revealed in the sacrifice
literally to end all sacrifices of blood, that of the Lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world (John 1:29). Nevertheless, as far as the world
now is concerned, as then the children of Israel, it does not go in, invents
all kinds of sects and foolish, false religions, manipulating the Saviour
- if it were possible - and His testimony, which is possible but irrational
- and these, seeking to "go in" anyway,

in their own ludicrous
efforts,

adding flesh to Spirit,

will to the work of God,
and

having a parallel to
trying to help God create the earth then, as salvation now.

It is ludicrous, impossible
and a phantasmal nightmare of prodigality of mind and heart in the grip of
rebellion.

No! says Hebrews, enter into
your salvation by faith alone, with NO works of your own through His ONE
sacrifice, by which you are complete for ever (Hebrews 10:10-14, cf. Ephesians
1:4-11).

8. Its Distinction

This however, justly, has
nothing whatever to do, either in the text or in the context, in the theme
or in the development in Hebrews, with the choice of a day of rest, or indeed
its existence, to commemorate that institution for man, who, in terms of
what God has said, is to be oiled with rest on a day. It is a day in which
LABOUR is to cease in making one's living, a day for maintenance of the product,
and worship of the Lord. This day continues as surely as we were created
in the first place; for it is a direct, explicit, express divine directive
formally related BY HIM to the mode of our creation, which, being past,
is not subject to change. The DAY of rest is because of the manner of our
making, and this by the word of God which is unchanging, unless developed
(when it does not change but reaches its fulfilment), or is directly fulfilled.
The word of the Lord is one which, as the Bible says, endures forever.

The rest in Hebrews is a
direct, divine command requiring faith for its operation, having salvation
for its target, the Lord Himself for its ground in personal inter-relation
beginning with faith and ending never. It is perennial, perpetual, bought
by ransom and proceeding from the restful heart of God who said,"In returning and rest shall you be saved; in quietness and in
confidence shall be your strength, but you would not" - Isaiah 30:15. Like the day of rest,
it rests in the restfulness of God who, having made or granted, creation
or salvation, allows those who are both His and formed in His image, to have
this inward quality and beauty of expression, called rest. HE made it, the
universe or salvation, and we accept what He offers BY FAITH, and so rest.

This being done, we also
keep His commands,
not to secure or pay for our salvation, being already redeemed with an eternal
redemption as we have seen, and appointed to obtain salvation (I Thessalonians
5:9-10), indeed, if justified, to be glorified (Romans 8:29ff.) and not
at all to be condemned by Him who justifies, as the apostle declares. No,
we keep them out of love (John 14:21-23), and for that matter of that element,
let us note what Paul says in I Cor. 16:22; and indeed, how should one NOT
love who with such love is so rescued - if rescued indeed! - from such a
just fate outside the promised land of the Lord in His beauty, wonder and
holiness, at such cost and with such humiliation of Majesty Himself! Small
wonder His Father has so exalted Him, who was at the first exalted (Philippians
2:1-10), and that His saints in all integrity of heart, so exalt Him who
is thus doubly exalted, in nature and in works. And they rest in Him who
so has worked. And they rest in His word, which is like a rock (Matthew 7),
as the Lord Himself declared in the days of His flesh, on which one builds
a house.

One does not decline to build
a house because one is given free entry into the domain, or here more precisely,
into the (promised) land of faith; but accepts His provisions, follows His
commands and rests in Him, in His mercy and in His word, to love it, and
to do it. Thus Christ stated that IF a man love Him, he will keep His words,
words not His but His who sent Him (John 12:48-50), for whom He is the word,
the living word who confirms the written word (Matthew 5:17-20), and in His
own day, did what He also declared, for His own part (Hebrews Chs. 2, 5).

It is foolish to build on
sand, He says, and it is wise to build on the rock, to hear and to do His
word. The word, it is HIS, and those who love Him do not except the mouth.
Indeed, as we see in the Song of Solomon (cf. Ch.11,
The Kingdom of Heaven), it is "most lovely". Again, the inspired psalmist declares in
Psalm 119:

"Great peace have they who
love Thy law: and nothing shall offend them" (v.165), and again,

"I have seen the consummation
of all perfection; Thy commandment is exceedingly broad" (v.96).

"O how I love Thy law!" (v. 97).

9. The Way and the
Day

Let us then resume our thoughts
on this day in which the rest is the more appreciated, the love the more
uninterrupted in manifestation of its peace and the product, man, serviced
in his spirit with less diversion, while his mind and heart is fed in quietness.

The Lord Himself, then, began
the routine appearance on the second occasion of the first day of the week,
collecting into this slot, His spiritual benediction in a special, public
and intense manner, befitting what He had done on that day. He recalled
their minds to the commencement on the first Lord's day, using again that
day which made the way for His appearance to them, in a purification better
than that much commemorated for Esther, who delivered her people from certain
physical devastation and from death. Much more this day of far greater deliverance
is to be commemorated in rest as long as the Age shall last, not merely
for some, but for ALL of that creation first mandated a day of rest by its
Maker. And that, we recall, was because of the way in which they were made!

This is so. The resurrection
was implemented as ground of rest but the week of creation, this was not
"abolished" as if history could be reversed or God were unsure of His principles,
or as if Christ were simply wrong in declaring that He did not come to abrogate
the law, but that it might be fulfilled.

Fulfilled it assuredly
was in HIM, who intensified and completed the rest, focussing it in the justification
which He conferred through His arising from the dead (Romans 4:25) and executing
it visibly on the first day, first in arising and second in appearing, arisen
in their midst; and thirdly, in EXPLAINING it carefully on the Emmaus road,
to the disciples who had found trouble in understanding that the suffering
came first, then the glory, which was exhibited in this display of power
which forever for the Christian, removes the fear of death. It is finished.
Change of format, not sentence, is all that remains (II Corinthians 5:1-4).

The fulfilment arrested the
day, re-directed the traffic to it, as it were, saying: THIS day is the
WAY for on THIS DAY the way becomes available, and for all time, as at first
the creation calls for one day in seven rest, not to be undone in this Gospel
era, till we know as we are known and see His face. Creation is basic to
existence, and salvation to continuance, and the rest for the one and the
rest in the other shall be blended in this day of rest, divinely provided
as surely as flesh for man at the first. Neither is to be negated, but the
first fulfilled in the normal way, without abrogation.

It is precisely the same case
as in the sacrifices which were not abrogated, in that the necessity for
them was not removed, in their place; but the ground for them being removed,
the site was moved, and in Calvary, not in the Temple, was the place of
fulfilment, in His hands, not those of man, was the offering made, and to
HIM was the new focus directed not to REVOKE sacrifice, but to CONSUMMATE
it and fulfil it for ever. It was not that sacrifice was UNDONE but done
up. So with the rest day: it was OF COURSE not a change of mind of God as
if He commanded in vain, and declared to no purpose what He was about in
marshalling forces to make man and to maintain Him who had ears, with words
as well as power direct (Hebrews 1:1-4).

It was instead an arresting
of it and focussing of it, with all its necessities and provisions, in a
new day, one day as before, but a different one. God had done ONE MORE WORK
and THIS THE GREATEST, and the day followed the week day record, adding
itself so that what had signified the end, now was the START of the new
day, on which the new work would have its record. SO Saturday became the
record day for the LAST of His works, and Sunday the rest from all of that.
It was now SEVEN days of works, but the last was not for the construction
of man, so that the six sufficed for his work on earth for man; but the seventh
demanded its place, and that day became the new day of rest, the Lord's day.

10. Revoke and Disdain
... or

Give the Glory Where
it is Due

No other possibility exists
but to revoke what God WILL NOT revoke, or to disdain what God has required
to be the very acme of glorying, saying GOD FORBID THAT I SHOULD GLORY EXCEPT IN THE
CROSS OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST (Gal. 6:14)*1. Constrained on all sides,
we accept gladly our status as created ( a day of rest is not revoked by
any fulfilment, we are not unmade, God has not ceased to be God, nor man
to be man, nor his creation to be a fact in the hand of his Maker), and as
saved (there, through the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, is now the greatest
of all the works to be commemorated, without which rest would be a shadow
that mocked, and by which rest is actually itself conferred). THIS is the
day of the Lord's choice, and to ignore it is to ignore the resurrection
which expresses it, as if our rest were dependent on creation, not salvation,
and Christ misled.

This then is no slithery,
slippery verbal substitution for the requisition of our Maker, who requires
that His word be kept, and who does not exempt from its provisions, whose
Son came to fulfil not abrogate: it is not a question of having His salvation
substitute for His creation, but complement it, and being acknowledged,
fulfil it without which there is no fulfilment but in hell. Not denial of
the word of God but addition by God Himself, who just as He added the New
Testament to the Old, the New Covenant in fulfilment of the Old, so here
has this new sign and this new fashioning of the old fact: Christ is risen,
and on that day will their be a memorial. Otherwise, shall w e then return
to animal sacrifices and all the rest of the preparatory covenant; or shall
we indeed ram God's words back into His mouth and not bother with a day of
rest at all!

11. THE TESTIMONY

OF TROAS

Small wonder then that in
I Cor. 16:1 we find the custom of preparing offerings marked for the First
Day of the Week, this being the religious focus, and that Paul likewise
preached on the first day, when at Troas; and that this is addressed as
follows by Luke:

"Now on the first day of
the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to
depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight" -

a statement of several aspects.
It was the FIRST DAY; it was that on which they came together; their purpose
in so coming was to break bread, a form of expression that related to the
Lord's Supper, which being required to be orderly was no mere oddity or
addendum, but to be received with due preparation and solemnity. It was
not that Paul being there, they decided to accommodate him in meeting. On
the contrary, it was that first day which was that on which they met for
the bread-breaking purpose: it is this that is written.

This offerings are set aside
on that day, on it the disciples met for breaking bread, and on that Paul
at length addressed them as Christ had done when His body was liberated
and His legs could move again, taking Him to the worship which He repeated
on the next occasion. If we are to follow the scripture which is for our
instruction in righteousness (II Timothy 3:16), on this alone we have no
difficulty. There is our instruction, even if we had not thought at all.
But man is to meditate on the word of God, and the requirements of the word,
as also the instruction of the example of the apostle and of the Lord, are
all one, and in one command.

The ground of rest is now
supplemented in a vital fashion: not only is it that we were so made, but
now it is that He who rested went on with His labours, and that His greatest
labour is now a wonder and a praise and ground for worship (John 20:27-29),
and faith so generated in His demonstration of the triumphant fulfilment
of this, His last work for rest, is made into a principle applicable for
all who come to Him ON THAT DAY AND IN THAT WAY.

Thus the very principle of
God on which the rest is based is not merely that we are so made, but this
also, that He who made us then rested. Now there is a rest from His
labour on the Cross, attested on this day and not before, which is from
another labour for man, and which HE has accomplished that man might rest.
This therefore not merely ACCORDS with the word of God in Exodus 20, but
in terms of that principle, REQUIRES its acknowledgment, in that the rest
is now from what has come to pass subsequently to that time, and in pre-eminence,
moreover, surpasses what was past. It does not negate it; it consummates
it. Like the sacrifices, then, it does not remove them as if wrong; it fulfils
them as right, overpowering without negation, completing without rejection.
So here.

SUMMARY

God chose, substantially and
not merely symbolically, to have a rest day for His creation, man, the one
made in His own image; it was God who worked in creation of what was good,
and who yet worked once more. He held in reserve explicitly when on earth
the power to adapt this, without denial, in that He declared Himself Lord
of the Sabbath. It was a great provision in terms of mercy from man to man,
and in terms as would be soon seen, of mercy from God to man. He then acted
to give ground for the adaptation, and required that the Cross, this new
7th "work" of God, now also "finished" as the first 6 works had
been from the foundation of the world, be given precedence, acted it out
in His appearance for communion and worship, and instituted a critical, crucial
principle of the faith at such a meeting (John 20:29).

The saints then met regularly
on that day, as these realities indeed required.

It is a New Covenant, as
Hebrews 8 states, founded on better principles, because more explicit and
completed, with a better ministry, even that of the Lord Himself. The "Old"
has accordingly become obsolete in all matters which concern the source and
heart of the rest (Hebrews 4) of the patterns, features and programs, indeed
of the officers of the covenant, priests; for HIS priesthood entirely supersedes
these, who is the Messenger of the Covenant, who has come suddenly to His
temple: nay, who is the Covenant itself (Malachi 3:1, Isaiah 42:6), by divine
decree! Woe to those who in the name of the Covenant which gives a rest day,
ignore "the Messenger
of the Covenant" who IS
the covenant, in their pastimes!

All this is perfectly explicit.
A new realm becomes the new starting point; it is the new environment as
well as the new environment of terms. It is Christ crucified, yes rather
risen from the dead. THERE is the covenant and that is where faith and all
its paraphernalia now lie (Isaiah 22;22-25, Hebrews 10:1-9).

If then the creation's finish
was heralded in one day, its required aspect of redemption (Romans 8:19-21)
was both historically and necessarily mirrored in another. These things,
which angels desire to look into, focus on man through the God-man who becoming
man, made for man a refined resting place, in Him whose rest is glorious
(Isaiah 11:10), and holds and is given its own grace and place on the First
Day, the Day of the Lord who brought with its light, light for the restless.

As to that, Christ commenced
it PERSONALLY as High Priest in executing His mission from the first; and
then exhibited and narrated the same, complete with exegesis of the resurrection
reality; both doing and teaching on the same day, in the very midst of very
proper worship, impossible to restrain. Thus He made rest available at all, by His deeds, and personally instituting
worship without delay by His various words assembled on that day; as also,
He established vital principles for faith on that same day.

It is simply, therefore not
possible to honour "God" without now honouring the Son, set for one rule
in a position of pre-eminence as God manifest (Philippians 2) - that Christ
should in all things have
the pre-eminence (Colossians
1:18), in whose name all things must be done (Colossians 3:17). Without
this work of His, man is unmade and has no rest; and through it man is re-made
and granted a rest which can and must now be commemorated where it is. The
work of God is not finished without this, and the rest which does not take
now its rest from here, is an abrogation of Christ's WORK AS GOD. It presumes
to ignore in Him, and in His resurrection its ground. It is failure to consider
that the principles for rest which God enunciated in Exodus 20 now REQUIRE
for their very fulfilment, the adoption of this, the consummation and satisfaction
of rest in the further work now done for that purpose.

Christ then must have the
pre-eminence, God must have His own work recognised which this time is IN
Christ as personal agent, teacher in robes of sacrifice, lecturer in a place
of power, the laboratory worker whose experiment is the restoration of rest,
the consummation of creation, the work of God. This day of rest, then, over
which He expressed His controlling power by word, and then by deed, is ONE
of the ALL things over which He is explicitly given pre-eminence. That is
an assault on His name which fails to do so, a revolt from the word of God,
and a denudation of its vital principles, given even at the very institution
of the day of rest for the Old, the former Covenant which looked ahead at
all times, to this very thing, the coming of THAT prophet who was to be
heeded above Moses (Deuteronomy 18). Those who keep the law then, let then
keep it; and those who know the Lord, let them show it.

To ignore this change, then,
explicitly or implicitly, intentionally or not, is

a) deny the pre-eminence
of Christ who so acted, both personally and physically, in instituting rest
on and for a day which completed the essential works of God for rest.

b) to withhold
one aspect of the pre-eminence in ALL things required

c) contradict
Galatians 6:14 by allowing a day of rest to omit such glorying by its very
pertinacious adherence to what entirely omitted the Cross.

d) contradict
the progression to the New Covenant in HIS blood, as if that particular
rest format, resting on creation only, one expressly of the OldCovenant were still operative in the New without
addition or adjustment for the New, which is statedlyin His 'blood'
(Matthew 26:26-29). That in turn denies Hebrews 8 in its whole thrust. In
all things movement must be made to the New Covenant, and lethargy in this
is an inept nostalgia founded upon lesser things.

Paul's word about the essence
of such things, such lingerings, are very firm indeed (Hebrews 10:19-29).
The Old has now become the New, and if one has understood at all the Old,
then he will adopt the New as a three year old "adopts" on his birthday,
being now four. To "refuse" is to fail in life for both years; for the former
year by such a rejection would be merely frustrated in its benevolently planned
purpose, as a preparation for being - four!

The Old Covenant has absolutely
no standing except as a preliminary to the New - except in that capacity;
for although it is the word of God, it is the word of God directed to a
consummation in a prepared path; and as Hebrews 8 states, the Old Covenant
where fulfilled, is now obsolete and passing away.

In fact, the redeemed heart,
the Christian saint of course, is NOT one praying FOR salvation, since it
is already accorded to FAITH BY this redemption (Ephesians 2:8, Titus 3:5,
II Timothy 1:9-10), and that from predestining before this world's time
began (cf. Ephesians 1:4); and Christ is not to be installed as a co-Saviour
along with the works of the flesh. On the contrary, He has ALREADY conferred
this salvation, so that there is already ground to rejoice in the fact that
this thing, it is DONE!

Thus, THIS heart, the
redeemed one, wants to exalt Christ. It exults in exalting Him (cf. Psalm
34:3, 145:10-13). It is His. His triumphs it receives and commemorates with
joy, with far more thrust and desire than any child ever gave to commemorating
the most recent triumph of the football team it follows. You do not have
to ENCOURAGE such a child to honour his team in its latest victory, because
you see, his heart is in it already!

How much less does the Christian
need encouragement of heart to exalt Christ: ceasing work on the ONLY day
where rest could first come to disquietude, where indeed there could be
ANY rest. Not only however is there some rest, is there met the necessities
of rest by the Lord on His day that saw His triumph over what Paul calls
the last enemy, but there is through this provided the acme and scope of
rest complete. Thus now made available through final and authenticated payment
for man (Romans 1:4), it has its source not through the WORK of ANY day
which preceded the WHOLE PROCESS, or its cessation; but in that where also
in terms of the action of the Divine Himself, it shows the rest from God's
own works when commemorated. It commemorates the last wine kept till last;
the last rest which dominates the whole, the final work which integrates
the plan, the personal work which consummates all, and completes in its
domain, the recognition of the passion which was work indeed! THIS is not
a matter of MAN'S days, but of GOD'S DAY!

Will the day of rejoicing
for the football team omit the day it won the premiership, and insist on
not moving from the day the Club was founded! Far less this, in which the
result of NOT having this consummation is not mere diminution of glory,
but obliteration of peace altogether, with no place to be found for rest
in reality, let alone in any commemoration, or maintenance day. If the Club
be demolished, what is there to 'maintain' or what thing to commemorate!

Let us now summarise this
aspect.

Thus as to Christ's
work and His day (Galatians 6:14),

it is not merely

a) the latest triumph.

It is rather by scriptural
directive

b) the crowning and
consummatory one (Ph.2).

It is, further,

c) the necessary one.

It is finally,

d) the express, explicit,
focussed, featured work of God which He has done, to bring acceptable status to man.

Recalling that it was to
the work of God that the day in the first place was in Exodus directed -
to the creation which He had done, or rather to the completion of the same,
we see that this work is in addition the one of which the Lord Himself, the
Creator of the heavens and the earth, BEING PRESENT, explicitly cried, IT IS FINISHED! What more is required before it is
realised at last by such as would dabble in Judaism, that lingering with
addition that subtracts Jesus the Christ, that THIS is the work of God, and
that He THEN finished it! In so working, He created the conditions for the
extension of that rest day which was to cover what He has done in creation,
to what was required to make the provision for the new creation past the
old curse, taken by the Creator, that He might redeem.

Then, THAT was done when construction
occurred, in terms of Exodus 20 creating the rest commemoration day; and
now, and now only THIS is done, this work of the greater-than-Moses
(Hebrews 4), Himself the focus to which indeed the whole New Covenant is
directed! The crucifixion leading to the resurrection is the turning point,
and the resurrection issuing from the crucifixion! "WHO," says Paul, "shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God
who justifies. Who is he who condemns! It is Christ who died, and furthermore
is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God..." (from Romans 8:33-34).

Within a Covenant*2, to ignore that covenant is quite a work! But alas,
it is a work of the flesh, and does not merely fail to commemorate the work
of God, now and in this way and on this day complete in this rest provision:
it also obliterates the status of the travail of Christ in its witness to
the work of God (John 5:19-23) which it is, and so denies in form
the very work of the Cross...

12. The Outrage

Let us re-state this in its
full horror. It is only in the sin-bearing substitutionary atonement for
repentant sinners that Christ gives final and just meaning to the earlier
model of the Old Covenant; and in that this is the work which God has added
to that of creation, that man might live, and testify, in the New Covenant.
To fail to attest this in cutting off to Old Testament limits the rest-concept
is not only a principial outrage, since here is ANY rest to be generated,
but in form, a covenantal rejection; for in this is the covenant focussed,
this work of God done by THIS member of the Trinity.

Indeed, here was God's last
work for what man HAD TO HAVE (or else hell itself would desecrate the whole
work for ever).

The first- born man from
death is thus accorded

the day for the first-born,
He being

newly moulded in resurrected
flesh,

the new focus and topic,

the new triumph by whom
believers also become new creations.

Here then is the creation-focus
which CANNOT be ignored,

for it is the chief creative
work of God,

this work through just
travail leading to the production

of the resurrected body
of the first-born from the dead.

It is as if the early members
of the divine creative actions

that made the universe,

are recognised in one day,

commemorative of rest;

and then,in
its own day, precisely the next, the Lord's day,

a commemoration that transcends
this, proceeds.

Moreover, as it bespeaks
the next work,

that of the redemption
producing offer of rest from sin and damnation itself,

to the fallen creation
in the image of God,

how much more is there
now recognition of these wonders,

on the self-same day of
the completion !

As it is a work of God
Himself, IN THE FLESH, how much more is it to be honoured, this consummation

That produces justification
by faith (Romans 4:25, Romans 1:1-4).

Indeed how surpassingly
more is this,

which isthe pre-eminent member of the category
of the creation works of God,

for it is the despatch
of sin through the increate-Creator, conquering it in the flesh,

that "new thing" which
He has "created", in that He has raised Himin divine authentication, from the
dead.

It is more for it cost
Him more,

greater in scope, in magnitude,
in covenant, in redemption, in Christ,

in the new creation which
is everyone who is based on His redemption:

now to be recognised in
its own day,

for He has rested also
from this work, most publicly declaring it "finished".

No merely so, but specifically
rest from this work is the chief rest, as it was rest from the chief toil, most testing travail, for Him, the LORD, who would see from the "travail
of His soul and shall be satisfied" (Isaiah 53, Hebrews 2:10-12, 5:7).

As creation fires the
Old Covenant, moving towards the New, so redemption fires the New, moving
towards judgment.

Thus He says,

"How long will you gad about,O you backsliding daughter?For the LORD has created
a new thing in the earth-A woman shall encompass a
man" - Jeremiah 31:22
(emphasis added).

And this is in the very chapter
of the famed declaration in the Old Testament, perhaps as pivotal as any
in it, of the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31), of which Christ is the Head,
and in which His crossis the cancellation of
doom, and His resurrection the annunciation of the reality of the new creation
in which death shall have no more place (Revelation 1:18, Romans 1:4, 4:25,
II Corinthians 5:17-21).

Covenantal rejection is no
abstruse concept; for it simply means this, that this work of Jesus Christ
is here rejected as NOT necessary and sufficient to secure rest by simple
faith in Him; for the rest day is for the rest of GOD from His works, which
He created; and here is their apex, the final work to create for man a place,
status and covenantal acceptance at ALL. The engagement ring of the Old
Covenant is still retained, but the new wedding ring is tossed to the dust,
its glory a shame, its wonder a desecration as if it were no work at all,
let alone the very mould and matrix of the whole New Covenant. It is far
better than seeking to explain such dishonour, to refrain from it; and much
the best, to delight in the acknowledgment both on His day, for what it
pronounces in rest, and in the Lord whose rest is so shown*3.

Horrible as this would be
in fealty, in covenant breaking, it is the more so in that this is ALSO breach of explicit Biblical
principles requiring the focus for ALL glory to be where this outrage denies
any at ALL!

As rest was offered in ancient
times (as seen in Psalm 95, before Christ died, as also in the devotional
life for example of David expressed in the Psalms):

it is apparent that it is
no more a case of rest being invented after the Cross, than is it
a question of pardon being invented after Calvary. In fact, both were
ALWAYS dependent on Calvary to come, just as buying on credit, really, is
dependent on the assurance of cash to come.

Thus, when the cash comes,
however, the preparatory is consummated, the expectation is realised and
the proof of payment is provided. THAT is a major event, the living on credit
beforehand in no way diminishing it, but rather accentuated the excellence
of the actual payment when it is made.

So the word of God requires
a day of rest, requires a way of rest, and the One who provides both having
paid, the day is His.

See also above, Ch. 12, That
Exuberant Day of Rest, esp. pp. 136-139, 146-150.

It is surely no accident that
the Seventh Day Adventism movement has the teaching that one's salvation
is not full-formed, processed and complete from the time when faith began
in Him, according to His covenant. A marriage of that fashion may indeed
lack the wedding ring. SO forms do not make the facts, but they may reflect
them uncommonly well.